*Stuff You Might Like:----> Listen to Jill on Search Engine Radio----> The Now and Future of Search (event in Boston)----> New MarketingSherpa Buyer's Guides

*High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week:----> SEO - Easy To Sell - But Can You Deliver?

*Advisor Wrap-up:----> Congrats to the Graduates!________________________________________________________

~~~Introductory Comments~~~

Finally, it feels like summer has arrived in New England! We've gonefrom having the heat on one day to the air conditioning on the next.Oh well, it's nothing new around here, I guess, yet each year it stillseems to surprise us.

I've got no guest article today, so you're stuck with just 'lil 'oleme. Don't forget that I'm always on the lookout for guest articles.If you have an idea for a guest article that you think the HighRankings Advisor readers would be interested in, please pitch it to mein an email and I'll get back to you if I think it might work.(Please don't send me ones you've already written and publishedelsewhere, even if it's just on your site.)

Okay, let's get straight to the good stuff! - Jill

~~~Search Engine Marketing Issues~~~

++Good Content or...?++

Hi Jill,

Can I ask a question about my website? I am very worried. I had about200 pages on my site and recently added about 300 more pages of goodcontent. I did have lots of very good top 10 rankings, but they haveall disappeared and now traffic is less than half of what it was.

I don't do anything that would get me banned, but since I added pagesI have fallen. I submit to paid directories and get good links fromrelated sites.

Do you think the pages and ranks can come back? Would you have anyidea why this happened?

I really appreciate any help you can give.

RK

++Jill's Response++

My first question to RK was to ask what sort of content he could haveadded to his site that could take up 300 pages? Was this uniquecontent he wrote himself?

RK wrote back to say that the content was articles that he had writtenhimself. However, I was extremely suspicious as to how RK could write300 "good content" articles all at once, since I know how difficult itis to write even *one* good article. So I clicked over to his site tolearn exactly what these articles were about, yet I couldn't find themanywhere.

Turns out they were linked from some sort of "sitemap" link at thebottom of the page, and that's about it. These were definitely not anintegrated part of his site, and they were far from being "goodcontent." They were really nothing more than the junk an automatedprogram could have churned out, with each page focusing on differentvariations of keyword phrases.

So was RK trying to "spam" the search engines?

I don't really think he was; I just think he didn't get it. Heprobably read at some forums that the more content he had on his site,the more likely he would get found.

But pages generated solely for the search engines do *not* constitutegood content.

Sure, RK claimed that his <cough> articles were helpful to his sitevisitors, but really, they weren't. They were nothing more than1997-era doorway pages, created to blanket the search engines withevery combination of keyword phrase that might possibly be related toRK's site. I don't know if RK created them by hand or through anauto-page generator, but the consequences are apparently the same. Nowhis entire site doesn't show up in the search engines, and RK doesn'tunderstand why.

I'm not sure that the "why's" of the situation are that important, butperhaps the fact that RK didn't feel his <ahem> articles wereimportant enough to link to through his global navigation should havetipped him off? If they were so useful, wouldn't he want people toeasily find them? I was specifically looking for them and couldn'tfind them, so how would someone who didn't know they existed ever findthem?

Good content is not content that is just there to target specifickeyword phrases.

Good content is information that people visiting your site will findhelpful in some way. It might help them in their purchasingdecisions, or it might teach them something they never knew. Goodcontent is also stuff that is completely unique and original. It'snot a page that is basically the same as another page (on your site orsomeone else's) with a few (or even many) words substituted here orthere.

Good content is definitely *not* pages that are created first for thesearch engines and next for the users who might read them. This isone reason why I've never bought into the whole "information page"concept, and much prefer to optimize existing pages of a site. Mostsites have good pages; their creators simply hadn't thought about thesearch engines and appropriate keywords.

Once I delivered RK the bad news that his alleged articles reallyweren't good content, and that they may have been what was dragginghis rankings down, he wanted to know if removing them would help hissite to be found again. Unfortunately, I couldn't answer thatquestion. I don't work for the search engines, nor am I privy totheir rules and regulations. I couldn't even say for sure that thepages were really and truly the problem. It may very well have justbeen a coincidence or part of the latest algorithm du jour.

But that's the point; you don't need to know whether something you domay or may not be penalized by the engines. You only need to knowwhat makes your site better overall for all interested parties. Aslong as you always do that, you can never make the wrong decision.

There will be times when you really do need to add good content toyour site. Just make sure that you do it for the right reasons!

Jill

(P.S. If you'd like to republish the above Q&A article, please emailme your request and where it will reside, and I'll send you a shortbio you can use with it for your site.)

_________________________________________________adv.

It's Never Been Easier To Get a Top Google Ranking!__________________________________________________

Learn which brand-new SEO program is sending shockwavesacross the SEO community, is getting rave reviews by top SEOexperts, and is allowing thousands to get top search enginerankings in a matter of a few months!

Click below to see what all the fuss is about!=> <http://www.seoelite.com/HighRankings.htm>__________________________________________________

~~~Stuff You Might Like~~~

++Listen to Jill on Search Engine Radio++

I'll be a guest at Search Engine Radio on Tuesday, June 14th at 12:00PM EDT <http://www.seoradio.com/20050614-jill-whalen.html>. I'll bediscussing the latest and greatest news and information in the searchengine optimization world with the show's hosts, so please tune in!

++The Now and Future of Search++

Don't forget about the June 16th (next Thursday) Boston InteractiveMedia Association's (BIMA) live in-person event which I will bemoderating called "Eyeballs: The Now & Future of Search." It will befrom 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM at Sullivan & Worcester, One Post OfficeSquare, Boston, MA.

<http://www.bima.org/events/index.cfm?ART=38>

Hope to see you there!

++New MarketingSherpa Buyer's Guides++

MarketingSherpa has just come out with their new Search EngineMarketing Buyer's Guides. This year they have created 2 separateguides: one for those looking to purchase organic SEO services, andone for those looking to purchase PPC advertising services.

I've only had a chance to quickly browse through them, but they looklike they will be very helpful to companies who have come to theconclusion that they need to hire a search marketing company, butdon't really know enough to speak intelligently about it to theirpotential vendors.

You can learn more or purchase the guides here:</marketingsherpa>.

One note about this is that my company is not in this year's guide.By the time I had heard about it, I was just too swamped to fill outall their questionnaires and decided to pass. If you do purchaseeither of these guides, remember that the companies listed in them aresimply a representative sampling of potential vendors for you to hire.Be sure to research beyond the guide as well!

_________SEM Kit for Search Engine Marketers____________adv.

Confused About the Best Way To Run Your New SEM Biz?__________________________________________________

Dan Thies' new SEM Kit from SitePoint provides you with a book &CD-ROM that includes a client-management form, SEM salespresentation, SEM process flowchart, keyword-research worksheet,sample agreement, proposal, pricing calculator and a whole lot more.

And that's just the CD! The book is chock-full of SEO/SEM strategies.

Order now for $197.00 with free shipping for a limited time:</semkit>.__________________________________________________

~~~High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week~~~

++ SEO - Easy To Sell - But Can You Deliver?++

Let's face it, SEO is getting harder and harder these days. Agingdelays, spam-clogged results, and millions of pages all vying for thesame keywords...what's an SEO to do?

Many who read articles and forums can easily sell SEO to nearly anyoneif they want to. They know all the right things to say, and knowexactly which buttons to push to get a client to sign on the dottedline.

But what happens after you make that sale? Can you deliver on yourpromises? Do too many SEO companies sell stuff that they reallyshouldn't be selling?

Read more of my thoughts, as well as those of the other High RankingsForum members here:</forum/index.php?showtopic=14710>. Besure to share your own comments too!

~~~Advisor Wrap-up~~~

It's only June 8th, but it's already been a busy and exciting month!Corie's graduation from high school was this weekend, on the hottestday of the year (of course). I'm still a wee bit sunburned fromsitting on the bleachers, but it was well worth it to witness thegreat accomplishments of Corie and the others in her class. Myparents even came in from Hawaii to partake in the festivities.

Then yesterday Timmy graduated from his Montessori school where he'sbeen since pre-K all the way through 6th grade. It will definitely beweird not driving there every day next year, as it's been a routinefor quite a number of years.

I also had Jamie's IEP meeting this week and was thrilled that we wereable to cross off certain skills for Jamie to work on, as she hasmastered some of them over the past 2 years. Everyone has been verypleased with her progress and her blossoming maturity this year. Ournext big graduation will be hers in just 2 short years!